Unlike the player he was traded for, Gordan Giricek was neither surprised nor nostalgic when he was dealt to the 76ers.

Giricek joined the team yesterday in Portland after being traded on Saturday along with a future first-round pick from the Utah Jazz for Kyle Korver.

Giricek is earning $4 million in the final year of his contract, and he also had an expiring relationship with Jazz Coach Jerry Sloan.

This season, Giricek had seen limited playing time and had an ongoing feud with the veteran coach.

"I think it's not worth any more to discuss those things," he said before yesterday's game at the Rose Garden against the Portland Trail Blazers. "It has to be water under the bridge. They did everything to help their team, and Philadelphia made their moves and we start from here."

Giricek said he wasn't surprised by the trade because he had asked for the move.

"I loved the city, but somehow I couldn't find a right spot with the team," he said. "The only thing I asked always is to be respected as a man. Not as a basketball player, just as a man. And I didn't feel that was so."

Not that Nuggets' Coach George Karl thinks the scales have been tipped in the race for the Northwest Division, but he expressed admiration for Utah's acquisition of sharpshooter Kyle Korver.

"Very disappointed," Karl said. "I was a lot of angry yesterday. A lot of cussing. They made a bad situation (possibly) be very good."

Utah traded disgruntled guard Gordan Giricek and a first-round draft pick to Philadelphia for Korver, one of the NBA's better 3-point shooters, on Saturday. Korver holds the 76ers' record for 3-pointers made in a season (226) and owns a career average of 40 percent from behind the arc.

While Brandon Roy is Portland's top scorer, the Trail Blazers look to Travis Outlaw in the fourth quarter.

Outlaw, a reserve, was 1-for-7 from the floor for the first three quarters but took over in the fourth as the Blazers went on a 21-0 run to beat the Philadelphia 76ers 97-72 on Sunday for their league-leading 13th straight win.

Seeking salary cap space, the Philadelphia 76ers traded Kyle Korver to the Utah Jazz for Gordan Giricek and a first-round pick.

Giricek's contract is expiring while Korver is under contract for three more years after this season.

Sixers head Ed Stefanski told the media that the pick is protected.

The first year the pick can be granted is in 2009 and there are different protections for each year.

Stefanski estimated that the Sixers will be $10 million under the salary cap next season, which would be the most room any team has.

?We felt this was a move for the plan that we have made to look to try to secure cap space in the summer,? Stefanski said via conference calls. ?The pick could be a player or a chip in a future trade.?

Thaddeus Young, Willie Green, Rodney Carney and Lou Williams will benefit with more playing time from Korver's departure.

?Kyle, even though I haven?t been personally here in his career, I?ve seen his work from afar and he is a good basketball player that you hate to lose,? Stefanski said.

Stefanski said Korver showed his high character when notified of the trade.

?He was gracious,? Stefanski said. ?He is a terrific young man.?

Willie Green missed his second consecutive game last night with a groin strain, and the fifth-year guard is being cautious.

Green will be with the team on its six-game West Coast trip but is listed as day-to-day. The first game will take place tomorrow at Sacramento.

"I will go on the trip, and I am looking to play in a few games and hopefully sooner than later," Green said before last night's win over Miami at the Wachovia Center.

Green said he didn't remember how he was injured. He played in Friday night's 106-101 home loss to the Los Angeles Lakers, but when the team arrived in Memphis for a game the next night, he said he felt a tweak.

The Cavs have been in contact with the Philadelphia 76ers about point guard Andre Miller.

Cavs General Manager Danny Ferry and Miller were teammates with the Cavs in the 1999-2000 season and have a good relationship.

According to sources, new 76ers General Manager Ed Stefanski has hinted he is willing to trade Miller, perhaps packaged with another player, for expiring contracts and a draft pick. The 76ers are in position to have salary-cap space next summer and may want more. The Cavs have some expiring contracts, but would probably need to put together a multiplayer deal to acquire Miller.

Although Los Angeles Lakers star Kobe Bryant has appeared to have a love-hate relationship with his team's ownership for the majority of the last sixth months, the trade-me, don't-trade-me drama appears to have settled down.

But before the former Lower Merion High School star took the court against the Sixers on Friday night, the question had to be asked: Has Bryant ever given thought to playing for the Sixers?

"Sure, sure -- absolutely," Bryant said. "When I was coming out of high school, that's all I thought about doing was playing here."

"Back then the big deal for me was being able to get up in the morning, get up at my parents house, go to shoot-around, come back and do my homework and then go play the game. That was awesome to me. So yeah, I've thought about that."

Although the Sixers will have salary cap flexibility this summer, Bryant most likely won't be on their radar. He can't opt out of his contract with the Lakers until after the 2008-09 season.

Dr. J roused the Philly diehards into an appreciation for the city's last championship team. Kobe Bryant riled up those Sixers fans simply by touching the ball.

The 76ers could only wish to matter as much as those two greats.

On the night Julius Erving and Philadelphia's 1983 championship team was honored, Andrew Bynum and the Lakers stole the show. Bynum scored a career-high 24 points and grabbed 11 rebounds, and Lamar Odom had 21 and 11 to lead Los Angeles to a 106-101 win over the Sixers on Friday night.

What if the 76ers had not traded Allen Iverson?

"If I was still in Philadelphia, I don't think they would be in the predicament that they're in right now," Iverson told the Rocky Mountain News.

"The way the East is, I would think we would be right there in the hunt . . . I look at the [Sixers'] games right now, and it looks like a rec-league game or an AAU game when you see the attendance there. It just looks dull."

The Sixers did trade Iverson, after more than 10 seasons, on Dec. 19 of last season, sending him and forward Ivan McFarlin to the Denver Nuggets for Andre Miller, Joe Smith and his expiring contract and two first-round draft choices.

"I know [the Sixers] didn't get enough," said Iverson, who has been leading the Nuggets in scoring, assists, steals, minutes and turnovers. "In my heart, they know they didn't get enough. The fans in Philadelphia know they didn't get enough . . . [The Sixers] just wanted me out of there."

Amid all the trade rumors, 76ers' point guard Andre Miller has quietly gone about his business in a professional manner.

Miller has played exceptionally well after a slow start. He is averaging 15.5 points, 6.2 assists and 2.38 turnovers a game while shooting 49.1 percent from the field.

His improved play will likely only increase the rumors, many of which are unsubstantiated.

"It's a business, and you still have to go out and perform," he said after yesterday's practice at the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine. "You can't worry about those types of distractions."

Sixers' President and General Manager Ed Stefanski has heard the rumors. Stefanski recently reached out to Miller's agent Lon Babby to say he didn't know whether anybody on the team would be traded and to tell him how much he admired what Miller brings.

"Andre is a heck of a basketball player," Stefanski said. "He is very, very good, and I am evaluating everybody in this organization."